Imaginary Tricks

SkommelSkommelSkommel

Bio

“Get utterly lost in its sun-dappled beauty.”
—For The Rabbits

“‘Bird’ is a head-nodding, slow-building rock song that feels soft and pretty despite Visser’s impassioned vocal and the steady rhythmic pounding that carries it along. There’s also a rad guitar solo.”
—Stereogum

“The lead single from his debut album is ‘Bird,’ which is, well, just fantastic. The song is classic indie fusion in the Brendan Canning / Broken Social Scene mould.”
—Revue Magazine

Building upon a lifelong affair with guitar noise and a love for buttery R&B classics, the songs on Skommel are reflections of psych-tinged rock and pop obsessions, abused by years of a relentless search for something stranger, stronger, and free. Imaginary Tricks takes an experimental approach to delivering a familiar thump; it’s a heartbeat, with multiple layers of complex sounds, mired in soul and hidden lyrical depth. The songs on Skommel are poignant and varied, from the surefire pop hit of “Night Owl,” which captures the universal feeling of staying up at night and worrying yourself to bits, to the rugged and rhythmic “Lights Out,” which addresses the distribution of wealth in the Western world, to the disarming “No Ordinary Guy,” where Visser details his father’s immigration from South Africa to the United States. The album plays almost like an intimate conversation between new friends, which slowly unfolds and blossoms over shared thoughts about anxieties, letting go of fear, and gaining new perspectives.

Much of Skommel was drafted in Visser’s Queens apartment and Bushwick rehearsal space, and recorded at Japam Studio in Brooklyn, NY, with Visser employing whistles and wah-wahs, Doppler-effect vocals, and alien Wurlitzer keyboarding to create the album’s eclectic, melodic, and hypnotic effect. Harlan Muir joins Visser for Imaginary Tricks’ captivating live shows, contributing alchemy of sounds, combining keys and tape delay.